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| Collected label-off clear plastic bottles at a recyclable waste collecting site inside a Seoul apartment complex are seen June 26, 2021 / Newsis |
By Ko Dong-hwan
A new environmental law came into effect Dec. 25, 2021: Enforcing the recycling of clear plastic bottles separately from their labels. This law has been expanded from apartment buildings to now also include single-detached houses. Yet despite the new law which was designed as a way to better recycle a larger amount of clear plastics, it appears that citizens are not faithfully abiding by it.
Looking around residential areas surrounded by single-detached houses, it is easy to spot discarded clear plastic bottles mixed with other types of waste.
Most of their labels ― mostly made from polypropylene, plastic bottles are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) ― were still left on the bottles, and some were even hidden inside a trash bag full of non-recyclable waste. At night, when trash bags get picked up by local garbage trucks in certain areas, those hidden clear bottles are hard to spot.
In many detached housing areas, households are asked to discard clear plastic bottles on a designated weekday for collection. But it is still hard to spot if the labels have been removed correctly and thrown away separately on such days.
Except for a few exemplar cases, most people are not abiding by the new law.
Not having a communal recyclable waste collecting site ― which most apartment building complexes in the country provide for residents ― also makes it difficult for people who live in detached houses to be able to recycle clear plastic bottles properly.
Without such a convenience provided, it requires more of an individual efforts and good will to separate different types of recyclable waste and take it outside their homes. If the waste isn't properly separated and bundled up, garbage collectors can choose not to collect the rubbish.
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| Spools of filament made of recycled clear plastic bottles are displayed at Digital Fashion Source 2021 at the aTCenter in Seoul's Seocho District, Nov. 23, 2021. Newsis |
The Ministry of Environment started separately collecting clear plastic bottles nationwide in December 2020 ― beginning with apartment buildings.
The mandate came after the country banned using colored plastic bottles when manufacturing beverage/drinking water products in December 2019 and banned importing PET waste ― except recyclables ― in June 2020. The same month, the government allowed companies to produce plastic water bottle products without labels.
The efforts resulted in an increased amount of collected clear plastic bottles nationwide ― from 461 tons in 2020, it jumped to 1,233 tons by November 2021, according to the ministry. This led to the country boosting produced amounts of highly efficient recyclable plastic materials ― such as clear plastic bottles ― 2.2-fold.
The government set a one year grace period from last December for the new law to be accepted and faithfully kept by citizens.
Meanwhile, the government, with the help of the local authorities, started monitoring where recyclable clear plastic bottles were not separately collected but mixed with other trash.
Recyclable waste collecting companies that repeatedly fail to separately collect clear plastic bottles will now be forced to forfeit their contract with the local authorities and replaced with other firms.
The government also began promoting the new law more intensively and started expanding recyclable waste screening sites nationwide, both publicly and privately operated, where clear plastic bottles can be more effectively collected.
Previous wasted clear plastic bottles, once shredded and remanufactured into a filament, now become a highly productive material for clothing, bags, shoes, cosmetic bottles and plastic containers.
Before Korea started removing bottle sleeves to recycle the bottles, they were mainly imported from Japan, China and Taiwan.
